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To suggest that basic literacy and educational attainment are somehow indicative of above average intelligence or the ability to understand complex and abstract
by antisthenes 8y ago
To suggest that basic literacy and educational attainment are somehow indicative of above average intelligence or the ability to understand complex and abstract ideas is a bit of a stretch.
With grade inflation and babysitting modern age students, what are the realistic requirements to attain a university degree in a low-difficulty major at a mediocre school? 80 IQ? 85?
The literacy argument is trivially refuted in a similar manner. Reading by itself is not indicative of higher cognitive function above an elementary school child.
Also, proportions are what matter here. I doubt the proportion of people with high fluid/crystallized intelligence is higher now, than it was, say in 1850. The only difference is that now a higher proportion of the general population have degrees.
- Apocryphon 8y agoWhat IQ level is optimal? And what is the role of IQ from a societal standpoint, if you are to presuppose that mass literacy and contemporary education is meaningless? What is the benefit of literacy from your perspective, for that matter
- anon2775 8y agoGCU with bought exams and homework, any rich dufus out partying and shagging babes all the time can easily graduate without learning anything... I mean, how do you think GWB made it through Yale and Harvard while being a pot-smoking F-102 pilot?
- PhasmaFelis 8y agoYou're dodging the question. When, exactly, was the peak of American intellectual achievement that we're now coasting downhill from? Name a decade.
- antisthenes 8y agoSure, 1970s
- Apocryphon 8y agoDo you have a single fact to back that up?
- Judgmentality 8y agoWhat made the 70's better than the 60's? In the span of a decade we went from idea (we will put a man on the moon) to execution (Apollo 11) for arguably the greatest scientific feat of mankind. I realize we're talking about humanity as a whole, but I don't see the appeal of the 70's.
- PhasmaFelis 8y agoAll right, now we're getting somewhere. Why?